The systems of Ukraine’s Central Election Commission were hit by a ‘virus’ designed to delete the results of the presidential vote, the Security Service says. CyberBerkut claim responsibility for the attack, saying the SBU is punishing innocents.

“We, the CyberBerkut declare that we're continuously present
inside the CEC internal network communication. We affirm that the
whole system does not work and the exchange of information
between the center and the regions is carried out exclusively by
employees on the phone and via e-mail,” the group said on
their website on Sunday.

The hacktivists claim “any attempt by the junta to prove
otherwise is doomed to failure. They have nothing to show
reporters except an imitation of working computers,” as the
hacktivists continue to work to “incapacitate the information
systems of the fascist regime,” posting a report of their cyber activities.

A day before
theelection, Ukraine’s Security Service claimed
that it had removed a virus at the Central Election Commission’s
server, designed to delete the results of the presidential
vote.

“The virus has been eliminated, software is replaced. So, we
now have the confidence that the Central Election Commission’s
server is safe,” Valentin Nalivaychenko, SBU head, is cited
by UNN news agency.He adds that the virus was meant to destroy
the results of presidential election on May 25.

After the cyber attack became public, the coup-installed Interior
Minister Arsen Avakov announced that CEC programmers may not be
able to fix the system in time for the elections.

“On May 22 unknown intruders destroyed the 'Elections'
information-analytical system of the Central Elections
Commission, including those of the regional election
commissions,” Avakov posted on his website.

“Criminal negligence of some of the CEC officials led to a
very late reporting of this issue to the Ministry of Internal
Affairs and Security Service,” Avakov wrote. As a result,
“programmers so far failed to fix the CEC equipment,”
the minister said announcing that fixing the problem in time for
the vote count was “impossible.”

Avakov assured this is not a “catastrophe” and said that
counting may be done manually, claiming this way Ukraine will
have “more reliable results.”

However, right before polling began on Sunday, Avakov claimed
that his website was hacked and the information about ‘manual
counting’ was posted by perpetrators.

CyberBerkut which called the Ukrainian presidential election
conducted by “Kiev's junta” illegitimate says that all
statements coming from the Kiev side are “lies.”

“Lies about the SBU and State Special Communication Service
about the 'virus in the system' have already been refuted by
Kaspersky Lab,” the hacktivists claim. “CEC lies that
'the system is operating normally' was refuted Avakov! The j
unta's attempt to repudiate the Minister of Interior statement
does not hold water, as was done after 12 hours of its
occurrence.”

CyberBerkut also announced that those who have been “arrested
by the SBU” in connection with the CEC attack “have
nothing do do with us and our actions.” “The SBU jailed innocent
people!”

The attack was first reported on Friday, when the Central
Election Commission’s website became inoperable for several
hours.